The Valkor Tower loomed against the gray dawn sky like a warning. Selene stood across the street at five forty-five, watching lights flicker on floor by floor. Her new badge hung around her neck. Elle Ross. Executive Assistant. Employee number 4472.
"You can do this"
The lobby was quiet at this hour. Just a cleaning crew and a security guard who nodded her through. The elevator to the executive floor took forty-seven seconds. She counted. The doors opened on silence. The fortieth floor felt different from the rest warmer, darker. Wood-paneled walls, soft lighting, air that smelled faintly of something she couldn't place.
"Pine, the ghost whispered. And moonlight".
Impossible. She pushed the thought away. Her desk sat outside tall double doors. Dark wood, clean lines, a nameplate catching the soft light: Elle Ross. Executive Assistant to the CEO.
She touched the letters. Her false name etched in metal like it meant something.
"Nice, isn't it?"
Selene turned. A woman stood a few feet away, sharp features, sharper eyes, expensive suit, a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"I'm Lyra. Head of Security." Her handshake was firm, almost challenging. "Welcome to the madhouse. You're the one he hired without background checks. Half the building is betting on how long you'll last."
"How long am I expected to last?"
"That depends on you and on him." Lyra's smile sharpened. "That door stays closed until he opens it. You don't go in without being called. Clear?"
"Crystal."
Lyra studied her another moment, then walked away. Selene watched her go.
"She's wolf", the ghost whispered.
"You're dead. You don't get to be sure of anything".
But the ghost was right. She'd felt it in the handshake. Lyra was a wolf which meant Damon Valkor's head of security was a werewolf, which meant… The doors opened. Damon Valkor stood in the doorway, and the world narrowed to him. Still impossibly handsome, stil carved from ice and danger, but something else too. Tired. Hungry. His eyes looked like he hadn't slept.
"You're early," he said.
"You said six."
"Early is good. Come in."
She followed him into the office. Enormous. Floor-to-ceiling windows. A desk the size of a small car. Bookshelves filled with things that weren't just for show. And maps, dozens of maps spread across a massive table. Some digital, some paper, old and yellowed, marked with notes.
Selene's blood went cold. She recognized those maps. They were maps of her former pack territory.
Damon was watching her. "You know what these are?"
She forced her face smooth. "Maps. Property boundaries."
"Very good." He gestured at the displays. "My acquisition division's current focus. We've been buying land in this region for eighteen months. Nearly two hundred parcels."
Selene stepped closer. Looked at the pins marking purchased land. Looked at the pattern. Her stomach dropped. Each purchase brought them closer to the heart of Blood moon territory. Closer to the sacred grove. Closer to the clearing where she'd been rejected.
"Why?" The word slipped out.
Damon looked at her. "Why what?"
"Why this land? It's rural. Remote. No development value. This doesn't make business sense."
"No," he agreed. "It doesn't."
"Then why?"
He was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was softer. Almost private.
"My mother came from this region. She left when she was young and never went back. But she talked about it. The forests. The way moonlight looked through the pines." He paused. "She made me promise to find it someday. To find her people."
Selene's heart hammered. Damon's mother was from her pack territory. Which meant Damon's mother was…
"Were there wolves?" The question escaped before she could catch it. "In the stories. Did she mention wolves?"
Something flickered in his eyes. "She mentioned many things. Why do you ask?"
Selene scrambled for cover. "Just curious. Rural areas like that have wildlife. Wolves, bears. I wondered if it matched the stories."
"It matched." He held her gaze. "Perfectly."
The silence stretched. Selene broke it first. "So your goal is to buy all of it?"
"Eventually. The current owners aren't selling the central parcels. They're... attached."
Attached. The pack was attached to land they'd held for centuries. And Damon Valkor was systematically buying everything around them. Containing them. Cornering them.
"Why? If there's no business value"
Damon smiled, It wasn't warm. "Because I can."
The rest of the morning blurred. HR paperwork. IT setup. Meetings with department heads who all looked at her with curious assessment. Lunch at her desk because Damon didn't stop working, and apparently neither did she but through it all, the maps stayed in her head. The pins. The boundaries. The slow, methodical consumption of pack territory.
He's going to destroy them, she thought. Take everything, good. Let him. They deserved it. Her father who rejected her, The elders who watched, the pack mates who turned away. Let Damon Valkor take their land, their power, their future. She hoped it burned.
But by mid-afternoon, the satisfaction curdled. The pack had exiled her, hated her, called her abomination but they were still wolves. Still bound to the land they'd protected for generations. If Damon took it all, what would happen? Would they fight? Would children die because adults had wronged her?
Not your problem.
"Liar", the ghost whispered.
At five o'clock, Damon emerged. "Still here?"
"You said you needed quarterly reports by morning. I'm almost done."
He looked at her screen. "You've been through six months of data in one day."
"Eight months."
"Most people would take a week."
"I'm not most people."
"No." He was quiet. "You're not."
The way he said it made her skin prickle.
"Go home. The reports can wait."
"That wasn't a suggestion." His voice was firm but not unkind. "First day is always overwhelming. Go home. Eat. Sleep. Tomorrow we start for real."
She hesitated, then nodded. She gathered her things and walked toward the elevator.
"Elle."
She turned. Damon stood by her desk, hand resting on her nameplate. The light softened his hard lines, made him look almost human.
"You did good today. Better than good. Don't let anyone tell you differently."
She nodded again and stepped into the elevator. Forty-seven seconds down. The lobby was full of people heading home to normal lives. Selene walked through them like a ghost.
Outside, the city was golden in the setting sun. Selene looked up at the Valkor Tower. Forty floors up, Damon Valkor was planning the destruction of her people. Her people who had destroyed her first. Let him burn them all.
But even as she thought it, something else grew in her chest. Something that felt dangerously like protectiveness. She couldn't protect them, didn't want to protect them but she couldn't let Damon destroy them either. Not because they deserved saving, but because if anyone was going to destroy the Blood moon Pack, it was going to be her.
"That's it, the ghost whispered. That's the mission".
By the time she reached her apartment, the plan was forming. Infiltrate. Observe. Learn his weaknesses. Find his blind spots. And when the moment was right, destroy him before he destroyed them.
She unlocked her door and stepped inside. The apartment was dark. She crossed to the window and looked out at the brick wall, but for once she didn't see it. She saw maps. Pins. Boundaries closing in. She saw blue eyes watching her like she was the only thing in the room.
I'm sorry. I know you wanted revenge. But this is bigger than us now. If he takes their land, he takes everything and if he takes everything, I have nothing left to destroy.
The ghost stirred." Or", it whispered," you could stop pretending you don't want him"
Selene closed her eyes. The ghost was right. She did want him and that was the most dangerous thing of all.